The Secret Of Practice: Don’t.

Hi. I‘ve just walked back home from collecting an overnight bag from my daughter’s friend, where she did a sleepover. This is a few hours before the Wales England match, when my focus of concentration will be at its highest. However, on the walk back I dropped into a deep un-practice, which may be helpful to share.

This is essentially about how to put the Way of Un into practice, and its amazing power. The instruction is so simple you may miss me saying it: stay awake and do nothing.

In particular, drop any goals. Do not:

Practice to get calm

Practice to get enlightened

Practice to become a better human being

Think about what you’re doing or its effect

Change anything

Just stay attentive to the nowness.

Leave it to the practice.

Get out the way.

These simple practices are simply about allowing your natural capacity for awareness to do the experiencing for you. It’s just like breathing when asleep, where you go the sleep trusting that your body will keep you breathing. So it is with natural, naked awareness, you do nothing but stay awake to what’s happening.

Practising in this way, with no striving for an outcome, can lead to great bliss. So be wary of it, as it can easily take you off into lala land; where you suddenly realise that you are fully enlightened and how wonderful people will think you are, etc. If bliss arises, just experience it and see how it changes.